Your Destination Is on the Left by Lauren Spieller is a thoughtful, inspiring story about art, ambition, and finding your path. Following Dessa, a young artist torn between family expectations and her dreams, the novel explores the challenges of stepping out on your own. Perfect for fans of contemporary YA with heart and self-discovery.

Your Destination Is on the Left is unfortunately not for me. I had tried this book and set it down in hopes of one day coming back to it, but now it is time to mark as DNF.

My reading vibe has changed over the years and sadly this one just isn't fitting in with my tastes anymore. I wanted to really get into it but it just didn't seem to work for me. The important thing with reading is knowing when to let a book go and it is time for me to do that. Plenty of friends did enjoy this one and I think if I read it a few years ago, pre-pandemic, I would have too.

I really did not like the characters in this family. A lot of the scenes felt disjointed/weird because something would happen like a fight, etc. and then in the next scene the characters would be acting like nothing happened.

I would rate this book 3.5/5

I just didn't LOVE this book. Dessa felt, at best, distant and underdeveloped, and the few times we did get to see her, she didn't seem to make sense. She willfully misinterprets the things people are saying and while that is a very real thing humans do, it didn't feel real to the character.

Most of my problems with the book stem from that: it didn't seem REAL.

It was not a terrible book to read, but not a great book to read, either.

I actually really enjoyed this book. I love travel books, they're honestly one of my favorites. I'm pretty sure I've read all of the ones out. I absolutely loved reading about Dessa and her adventures. Highly recommend!

ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS! You need to pick it up right now...like, right away.

The entire idea of the story to bring an artist's fear or happiness in the limelight connects so much to me, it's hard not to relate. Dessa is a teenager who wants her life to be normal, not something most teenagers want but when you're always on the road and your family are nomads, this is exactly what you want. Especially when you want to become an artist and you want to enter college and you even land an internship under an inspirational artist.

This book is a perfect mixture of characters and plot because it doesn't let one of them overshadow the other. While I loved the overall story, I even fell in love with Dessa and wanted her to achieve all the happiness in the world right from the start. The best aspect of this book is definitely the emotional tinge that each and every scene has; it makes you feel and there's no way you can escape the immense happiness or the tears that follow.

The writing is simple yet gravitating and not only hooks me to the story but also tugs at my heartstrings. Last but not the least, the main idea of this book, i.e., living your own life or living it for the ones you love, is so well interwined with the young adult demographic that it proves to be an important read for the teenagers. The dilemma Dessa faces is not easy yet she takes the necessary steps for her happiness while trying to consider her family's happiness, and this complexity of both, the situation and the character, wins my heart.

Dessa Rhodes and her family are nomads. Together with a couple other families, they travel by RV living on the road and taking it day-by-day. It sounds like that would be really cool, especially since her best friend Cyrus is a part of one of the families traveling with them and she happens to be harboring a long-time crush (which is a big no-no given how close their families are). But instead, Dessa dreams of normalcy and going to college to become an artist. When she receives rejections from all the schools she's applied to, she's thinks this is it and that she's stuck. Until she gets an internship working with a local artist in Santa Fe. All the families, especially her family, grumble about it (this made me so mad; particularly at her parents!) but Dessa is determined and I admired her for it. The rejections, the desire to prove her worth and the conflict with her parents over her future are real anxieties she struggles with but she's moves forward by throwing herself into her internship in spite of that. It's a quiet story but Dessa's journey is easy to relate to, even though I didn't relate to her lifestyle. And I think it's the latter that had me struggling to connect. The author touches on why her family are nomads but not in depth and I wish she had. I would've liked to know more about Dessa's life before, why her mom loves being on the road so much, did Dessa ever love it and when exactly did that change? Knowing these things would've given even more weight to the tough decisions Dessa has to make. Does she stay with her family living a life she doesn't want or does she pursue being an artist even if it means staying behind?

Do I recommend? It was the premise that drew me to it and if it interests you, I think it's worth checking out.

I liked that Dessa’s major goal wasn’t to find true love or be in a relationship. While romance is an important element of the story, Dessa’s real goal is to go to college and craft a future for herself. This creates some problems between her and her family as her parents want her to stay with them and continue traveling. It also strains her relationship with her best friend Cyrus, because he reads her desire for another life as a rejection of the life he’s chosen. So Dessa faces a difficult journey as she tries to find a way to do what she feels is best for her without hurting the people she loves most.

At one point, Dessa’s dad asks her to keep a secret from her mom. Dessa keeps the secret, but feels guilty about the lie and frustrated that her dad continues to lie to the family, too. I loved her relationship with her grandmother, who acts as a pillar of strength and a sort of home base for Dessa and her family. She doesn’t direct the story, but she sometimes serves as a mirror, reflecting Dessa’s true desires back to her sometimes without any words.

Dessa’s artwork also plays a major role in the story. I loved that. The descriptions of her artwork and the art of the woman who mentors her had me wishing for a studio and paintbrushes or a day at the museum.

On the whole, I liked the balance between Dessa’s dreams for the future, which she won’t compromise for a relationship that might only be for right now, and her relationships. I loved the way art was represented in and played a role in the story, too. Readers who liked Stacie Ramey’s The Sister Pact and How to Be Brave by E. Katherine Kottaras will want to check this one out.

This book was delightfully mushy and easy to slip into. Coupled with the vivd descriptions of the Santa Fe heat and dust, this is the perfect book for summer. Spieller crafts a perfect story about finding the bravery to set out on the adventure of discovering who you are, without veering into cliche. Dessa is complex and engaging. Her fears are multifaceted and her triumphs are still ridden with doubts. Nothing resoles nicely in this novel, because nothing resolves neatly in life. The best narrative, the best journey, is the one we go on to step into ourselves.

So this was quite cute! While I wasn't exactly blown away with novelty, it was certainly enjoyable enough. I am a sucker for a road trip, and I loved how much Dessa was able explore not only her relationships with others, but what she wanted out of life too.

There's a huge focus on family, which is nice, and it definitely is an interesting look into a more nomadic lifestyle than most of us are used to. Honestly, I cannot imagine living with my entire family in an RV now, certainly let alone as a teenager aching for privacy. It's a fun angle.

And sure, there's some romance (though I didn't totally love it? Nor did I hate it, so there's that), and a really unexpected friendship. And a nice mentor-mentee situation, which I think is a great thing to show to young people.

Overall, a pretty solid contemporary. Not mind-blowing, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Your Destination Is on the Left is so good! I really hoped to like it and ended up loving it. It reminds me a little of Piper Perish with the art kid going through a self-discovery journey. Dessa is a girl in love with art who really wants to get out of the ‘traveling the country-RV life’ to go to college, she applies to as many schools as possible but sadly none of them accept her putting her future into perspective.

I got a little annoyed at the characters that weren’t in with Dessa when it came to her life decisions, like her mom, I understand her life is traveling and their motto is “never stop moving” but if your kid has a passion and wants to go to college I think you should support them and not be happy when something comes in their way and blocks their path. Another person that annoyed me very much was Cyrus, he also had that “yay, it didn’t work now you can stay with us and keep traveling” attitude which I hated. Maybe this is all because I’m the kind of person who thinks everyone should do their thing even if it’s not with you and even if it’s not the best for you, you should think what’s best for them and since these two characters didn’t share that at all it was just annoying for me to read.

Not all the characters were bad, I loved Yia-Yia, Taryn and Fiona. They all really pushed Dessa into discovering what she really wanted and who she really is. I truly loved those supporting characters.

This book is a heartwarming coming of age story with art, love in all forms and friendship. It’s a very good YA book. I love reading books about people getting their life together while mine’s still a mess, it’s great, like catharsis. I recommend this book to everyone, it’s an easy, light read. Go pick it up!!

3.5 stars

There are a lot of things to love about Lauren Spieller’s debut, Your Destination Is on the Left.

The first thing is super evident, and it’s how skilled of a writer Spieller is. She’s fantastic, and you know that even though this is her debut, she really knows how to write a story for young adults.

Seriously, she understands the things that make YA books so great, and she’s managed to seamlessly incorporate them in her writing. Things like romance that isn’t invasive, characters really growing throughout the novel, and just interesting details that are happening without you realize it’s description.

Your Destination Is on the Left was really easy to read, and it’s not just because of how this falls just at the 300ish page mark. Dessa’s voice was really relatable and I loved reading her narration. It was just so easy to read and the way Spieller wrote her narration really incorporated everything naturally and I just sped through the whole novel.

I think conceptually, this book was wonderful. I mean, Dessa has a bunch of character development to go through, and she’s struggling with art and college and family and romance and her nomadic life. I think the nomad aspect of her life gave a really unique aspect that differentiated this book from other similar contemporaries, while also providing plot points.

But, despite all the positives, I did find something that fell a flat for me and made this not as enjoyable as it could have been.

The plot felt a little bit underdeveloped. I like how much Dessa learned throughout the novel, but sometimes it felt a bit like people were always telling Dessa what she should think. Her new friend Taryn helps her realize something, her mentor Fiona helps her realize something else, her romantic interest Cyrus lets her know something else.

All of it felt like it kind of contributed in people telling Dessa about how she need to look at things differently rather than her gleaning this from her own experiences, and this wasn’t ideal for me. I wanted Dessa to learn of her own volition throughout the story, and I feel like a majority of her change wasn’t actually because of her own experiences, but because other people told her things.

This was a really quick read and I loved that about this book, but it also felt like there just wasn’t enough plot. Or maybe there was enough plot, but not enough emphasis on what was happening. I feel like certain critical scenes to Dessa’s journey were kind of underemphasized, which might have contributed to me feeling like Dessa didn’t grow of her own volition, because the emphasis was in the wrong place.

I just wish the emotional weight of this story was a little heavier and contributed to that rise and fall feel a little bit more.

But, probably the most surprising part of this book was the romance. Y’know, I really disliked the romance at first, but by the end, I was nodding along with what was happening. This almost never happens to me in YA, and I was so surprised at how much my opinion on the romance changed. I didn’t expect it to go in this direction (no spoilers!!!), but I really appreciate what Spieller did with Dessa and Cyrus and their decisions about their relationship.

They were smart yet enamored, and although I wish there was more buildup to the L-word, because a lot of their romance happened in a time we don’t get to see narrated (aka in the years they traveled together), I really agreed with the direction their romance went in by the end of the book.

Overall, I did enjoy reading Your Destination Is on the Left and it was a light, quick, and character-focused contemporary that will appeal to lovers of Stay Sweet and other lighter contemporaries.

Thank you for approving me for this ARC. I took part in the Fantastic Flying Book Club's blog tour for Your Destination Is on the Left.
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Here is my thoughts on this book:

A distinctive setting | Dessa and her family are modern day nomads. For the last five years they’ve traveled around the US in a tiny RV with a small caravan of other families. I’ve never traveled cross-country. Heck, I’ve never even traveled more than 6 hours in either direction of my house. So I had a hard time imagining what it would be like to constantly travel, never settling down in one place for more than a few weeks. Your Destination Is on the Left helped me gain a better understanding of what constant life on the road looks and feels like.

A relatable heroine | Dessa has many fears and struggles with low self-esteem. She’s passionate about art, but is too afraid to really express herself through it, because she doesn’t think what she creates is good enough. I think most, if not all of us, have been able to relate to Dessa in some way at some point. I’ve definitely missed out on good opportunities in the past, because I let my fears get the best of me and hold me back.

Not the greatest romance | I adore love stories that feature best friends slowly realizing their feelings run deeper for one another. Those relationships are slow-burning, and usually end up being so worth the wait, therefore I started Your Destination Is on the Left with huge romance expectations. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stand Dessa and Cyrus together, because I really disliked Cyrus. He was selfish, vindictive, and not very supportive of what Dessa wanted to do with her life. Thankfully their romance wasn’t the main focus of the story.

Can we have a companion novel? Pretty please ♥ This book unsurprisingly ended on a bittersweet note. I would really love a companion novel or novella someday. One that takes place a couple years later, showing us where Dessa’s path led after the big decision she made in Your Destination is on the Left. I’m not going to hold my breath.. but a girl can dream right?!!

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This is the link to the review on my blog: http://bookslaying.com/2018/06/your-destination-is-on-the-left-by-lauren-spieller-blog-tour-review-giveaway/

That was fine? I really hated most of the characters in their family/caravan. I understand having to keep people together and make group decisions, but it just felt like they were forcing each other into things. Dessa knew what was right for her and no one wanted to let her do it. I appreciated that she fought for her independence and tried to make everyone understand that SHE deserved to make her own decisions. She's old enough to decide what to do next. Cyrus was an okay love interest sometimes but I wasn’t really sold on the ship... which is weird, because friends-to-more is my jam usually. There were some really bad transitions between scenes at times, like two characters would have a major fight and then literally be completely normal as if nothing happened in the next scene? It felt a little jumpy in that way. I liked the ending for the most part. Overall, this was pretty good but I think my expectations were too high maybe.